Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki has left a ridiculous amount of money on the table during his NBA career

This Story is About...

Share This Story On...

Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki (41) is congratulated by the team after surpassing the 30,000 point mark against the Los Angeles Lakers in the second quarter at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Tuesday, March 7, 2017. Dirk is only the 6th player in NBA history to reach the milestone. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News )

How much is loyalty worth? In Dirk Nowitzki's estimation, just under $200 million.

Last week the life-long Maverick signed a shockingly cheap two-year, $10 million deal to stay in Dallas. The money is well, well below the market value for a player of Nowitzki's stature and ability, even this late in his career and especially after the Mavs declined his $25 million team option for this season.

But the move is right in character for Nowitzki, who has turned down money throughout his career. Business Insider examined his career earnings and found that Nowitzki left a stunning $194 million on the table over the past two decades.

Why two national analysts gave Dirk Nowitzki's new contract with the Mavericks an A+

Business Insider points out that Nowitzki cut into his potential earnings when he took a three-year, $59 million contract extension in 2006 two years away from free agency. Had he not done that, he could have signed a six-year, $158 million contract in 2008. Then in 2014 he could have signed a five-year, $239 million contract in 2014 that would have carried him through the end of his new deal. Instead he will earn roughly $43.3 million in that same five-year window.

In total, Nowitzki will have earned $252 million in his career at the end of his new contract. That's nothing to sneeze at, but it also pales in comparison to the $446 million he could have earned if he had been maxed out for his full career.

"It's a fine thing that Dirk doesn't live by the Wall Street code that "greed is good," but he is doing Mark Cuban a favor here that goes far beyond the call of duty," Cowlishaw wrote. "If the NBA was a league where anything is possible, one could argue that Nowitzki's munificence slightly increases the chance of Dallas landing the eighth and final playoff spot. As pie-in-the-sky as that might be, the NBA is not that league, anyway. It's the place where the Golden State Warriors reside. It's a place were No. 8 seeds go to die and rather quickly."